The Blu-ray Disc format victory may eventually most benefit chief proponent Sony in the long run, but another manufacturer is pushing its sales projections upwards as well. Samsung is revising its sales target for its array of Blu-ray products to slightly more than $1 billion by 2010—from a previously estimated $401.4 million.
“In line with increasing penetration of HD TV sets, the overall Blu-ray market will achieve an average annual growth of 80 percent by 2012, with 51 million [sets] sold a year by that time,” said Jun Dong-soo, executive vice president of Samsung’s Digital AV Division. “A conservative estimate for 2008 would be 5 million—or three times that of 2007,” he said, adding the company is reviewing the possibility of investing new capital into its Blu-ray line.
Samsung most recently added a fourth-generation Blu-ray player (BD-P1500) and a second-gen home theater system (“HT-BD2F” for now) to its Blu-ray series. (Samsung introduced its first-gen Blu-ray player nearly two years ago.) Samsung could team up with Panasonic and other makers in various Blu-ray activities, according to The Korea Times in Seoul.
